they will get into squabbles over the debt ceiling, buthey will not deal with the pblem in an essential way. >> i am reading robert carroll's latest book on lbj. it looked like jack kennedy was having the same problem with the congress. evererything was being sidetracked. >> that is true. i would say this as far as what senator obama said in 2006, consistency is the hobgoblin of small mes. but there was a different attitude. we have raised the debt ceiling 70-plus times. the congress has voted to do it. there was always a sense of we are not going to vote e to rai the other guys debt ceiling but there was always the understa that we would provide the votes in the final ananalysis. the president's party y did that. right now, what you have is a situation where the republican party is reduced to its lowest standing in the history of "the wall streeeet journal" nbc poll. the only thing that is worse is john boehner, 18% favorable. this is not a formidable parker. >> "politico" spoke to some unnamed republican leaders and they said that party leadaders have appeared to shut down the governm